Draw disappoints Hughes

21 October 2008 08:31

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes was disappointed not to take three points from Monday's encounter against ten-man Newcastle United.
The Magpies played for 78 minutes at a numerical disadvantage following Habib Beye's dismissal but City still needed a late Stephen Ireland goal to salvage a point from a 2-2 draw at St James' Park.
Hughes said: "We're disappointed, obviously. If we're honest, we probably created more chances and dictated the tempo of the game better when both teams were equal than we did when they went down to ten men.
"The situation actually helped them. The crowd got behind them and roared them on, and it was difficult to break them down.
"At 2-1 down, you're scratching your head and wondering how it happened and I suppose in the end we were grateful to get a point out of the game, but it's a game we should have won comfortably.
"They're fighting for their lives and they got a lucky break with both goals.
"The first one takes three ricochets and lands at Ameobi's feet on the edge of the six-yard box. The second one is a complete freak goal that you won't see again this season or for many seasons to come.
"So they got the rub of the green with that but in fairness we've got to do better than that.
"We didn't do a great deal in that second half when we needed to press the opposition. They were running and chasing everything down but we should be better than that.
"We needed to show a little bit of craft and guile in the final third and we didn't really move them around enough. Once they got two banks of four we found it difficult to break them down."